Immigrants with Mental Disabilities Deserve Due Process

by Jennifer Stark for Blog of Rights, view original article

August 9, 2010

Ever Francisco Martinez-Rivas, 31, suffers from schizophrenia and hallucinations, and exhibits unexpected patterns of behavior. After getting into an argument with his stepfather that turned violent, he was taken into police custody.

Though Mr. Martinez is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. and has lived here since the age of 9, current laws allow the federal government to deport Mr. Martinez to his birth country, El Salvador, because he lacks U.S. citizenship.

Mr. Martinez is heading to immigration court next month, to face deportation hearings in front of a judge whose instructions he is unlikely to understand. What’s missing for him and possibly thousands of other immigrants with serious mental disabilities: a federal mechanism to provide attorneys for people who are not capable of representing themselves.

Read the rest of this article at: http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-immigrants-rights/immigrants-mental-disabilities-deserve-due-process